Prior to the advent of Internet-based shopping, retailers and service providers grew accustomed to maintaining a loyal following of regular customers. Due to limited access to information about prices, quality of goods and services, and customer service provided by the retailers and/or service providers, a customer was likely to seek out a source for a particular good or service once and, if pleased with the good or service, return to the retailer or service provider for subsequent purchases.
As the Internet has progressed in the past several years, retailers and service providers have established online stores. As more and more retailers and service providers establish these online stores, customers' ability to access information pertinent to the retailers and service providers is increased dramatically. Instead of regularly returning to a particular retailer or service provider that the customers had become accustomed to frequently purchasing from, the customers are now able to seek out the most attractive offer for each of their individual purchases.
While this increase in access to information might be beneficial to the customers, retailers and service providers may, as a result, experience unpredictable fluctuations in purchases as well as difficulty retaining customers due to this increase in Internet-based information and the resulting purchases.